6 - Rotonda (Roundhouse) building

The most characteristic building of a Steam Depot, and now of this Museum, is a circular structure, which in this case is the quarter-circle Rotonda (Roundhouse). It is also called a “cocherón” in Spanish and was the heart of the operating system. It is made up of 12 tracks with a pit leading to the “Swing Bridge.” The roof originally featured a series of chimneys to let out the engines’ steam and vapour. They were eliminated before it was turned into a Museum.

The duties of the railway workers inside it consisted of greasing and preparing the locomotives for service, supplying materials such as coal, grease, sand or water, cleaning and maintaining the different elements, doing repairs and also organising the drivers to cover the different shifts. A lot of people in different categories participated in these jobs. Up to 900 employees worked in all the installations, in an atmosphere full of smoke, soot and grease. Also attached to the depots were administrative staff and drivers, who were essential for running the engines. Each engineer-and-stoker team was assigned to a locomotive, which they had to clean, tune and start up, which took at least three hours until they attained sufficient steam pressure.

Although there used to be a great number of these buildings, they have now practically disappeared from the railway landscape. In the case of Vilanova, the last urgent refurbishment took place in 2012, while further major work is still pending. On the other hand, a design project for covering the other tracks is in its initial phase; this initiative will enable us to protect all of the Museum’s historic vehicles.